PAUL HARRIS clarinetMARCO FATICHENTI pianoJULIAN METZGER cello

Paul Harris and Friends

presented by Elysian Music Festival

Thursday 21 May 2020

﻿Doors: 6.30pmConcert: 7.30pmTickets: £25 adult, £20 early bird (before 7 May), £15 concessionsTicketholders are invited to meet the artists following the performance while savouring a glass of wine or Prosecco.

POSTPONED:Due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic this recital has, reluctantly, been postponed. Ticketholders will be contacted directly to arrange a refund of their tickets and booking fees. We are working with the Elysian Music Festival to find replacement dates for this programme.

Elysian Music Festival is proud to have 1901 Arts Club as its new home for a series of four concerts in the 2019/20 season. The series will offer diverse and imaginative programmes, presenting bright young talent alongside acclaimed performers.

Paul Harris is one of the UK’s most influential music educationalists. He studied the clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the August Manns Prize for outstanding performance in clarinet playing and where he now teaches.

He is in great demand as a teacher, composer, and writer (he has written over 600 books); and his inspirational masterclasses and workshops continue to influence thousands of young musicians and teachers all over the world in both the principles and practice of musical performance and education.

Marco Fatichenti is an internationally acclaimed performer and recording artist who has appeared in some of the most prestigious venues across Europe and the United States.

He is currently researching early twentieth-century performance practices, along with the aesthetic shifts in Spain throughout the Francoist autocratic regime, at King’s College London.

Described by Hilary Finch in The Times as ‘none other than Chopin incarnate’, he was hailed by the International Record Review for offering ‘a different and refreshing slant on Brahms from a vantage point south of the Alps’, and praised by International Piano for ‘marrying Romantic turbulence with Classical order’. His performances include broadcasts by the Spanish RTVE, Irish RTE, Polskie Radio, and several BBC appearances.

Among his recent highlights are performances at London’s Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Dublin’s Concert Hall, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, Barcelona’s Auditori, and Valencia’s iconic Palau de la Musica. He was also invited by the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs to perform at the International EXPO in Zaragoza, Spain.

Marco’s critically acclaimed solo albums include music by Brahms, Stravinsky, Debussy, and Chopin.

Active both as recitalist and chamber musician, Marco is also an educator who is committed to promoting music and its societal value among diverse audiences.

​Cellist Julian Metzger has an exciting multifaceted career as a chamber musician, orchestral player, soloist and teacher. This career path can be traced back to his early childhood where he first developed his passion for cello playing and music making, followed by many years of study and single-minded dedication to his craft under the influence and guidance of his teachers Ioan Davies, Stefan Popov and Raphael Wallfisch, augmented by diverse masterclasses by David Strange, Steve Doan, Yfrah Neaman, Paul Roberts and Norbert Brainin.

Apart from regular appearances in the United Kingdom, concerts have taken him throughout Europe and the Far East where delighted audiences have often praised his technically and musically exciting interpretations. Drawing on a rare depth of emotions combined with a rich palate of sound colours, Julian has become a sought-after chamber musician collaborating with eminent performers such as oboist Christopher Redgate, flautist Lisa Nelsen, violist Robert Secret, violinists Charles Sewart and Giovanni Guzzo and pianists Marco Fatichenti, Paul Turner and Richard Black to name but a few. These collaborations have taken place on concert platforms worldwide and at festivals such as the Buckingham Summer Festival, Beaminster Festival, Malcolm Arnold Festival, Musicfest Aberystwyth and the International Casals Festival in El Vendrell. Concerto performances with conductors such as Alexander Walker, Robert Secret, Adrian Brown, Michael Rose, Anthony Weeden and Jacques Cohen have included virtually the entire standard concerto repertoire in addition to lesser known works by Tartini, Monn, Bridge, Kabalevsky, Miaskovsky and Shostakovich.​Within the camaraderie of the orchestra Julian frequently enjoys concerts as principal and sub-principal cellist with orchestras such as the English Symphony Orchestra, the London Gala Orchestra, the Orchestra of Stowe Opera and Orchestra Pro Anima. Other orchestras he has worked with over the years have included the Northern Ballet, Brighton Philharmonic, Oxford Philharmonic, Oxford City Orchestra, London Concert Orchestra and English String Orchestra.

One important aspect of Julian’s development as a well-rounded professional musician has always been cello teaching and chamber music coaching, an activity that started as a young teenager in his native Germany where he taught young and adult beginner students. In fact he believes that he has learned as much about cello playing from teaching as he has from practising and performing. He now teaches cello and coaches chamber music at the Purcell School, Kimbolton School, Bedford Girls’ School and the Royal Latin School, in addition to teaching a small select number of private students. For many years he has coached the cello section of the Bedfordshire County Youth Orchestra and he has given masterclasses at Wells Cathedral School, New College School, Oxford and for the Milton Keynes Music Service. He has inspired a number of his cello students to continue their studies at the Royal Northern College, Birmingham Conservatory, Leeds College and Canterbury University in order to become performers and teachers themselves. With his chamber music colleagues Paul Turner and Lisa Nelsen, with whom he founded Enigma14, a trio that aims to introduce today’s concert-goers to chamber music for this lesser-known combination of instruments, he frequently tutors on the Benslow Chamber music courses.